Ongoing Story
America's culture-war battles are playing out in courtrooms and statehouses: fights over abortion after voter-approved amendments, parental rights and student gender transitions, religious-discrimination probes into Major League Baseball, and clashes over free speech and public monuments.
America's culture-war battles are playing out in courtrooms and statehouses: fights over abortion after voter-approved amendments, parental rights and student gender transitions, religious-discrimination probes into Major League Baseball, and clashes over free speech and public monuments.
The nation's deepest social divides are being fought out in courts, statehouses, and the culture at large. From abortion and parental rights to religion in public life and free speech, a wave of disputes is testing where Americans draw the line - and who gets to draw it.
The post-Roe legal map keeps shifting. A Missouri judge found the state's abortion laws violate a voter-approved constitutional amendment, a landmark test of how far ballot-box protections reach. At the national level, a report revealed more than one million abortions occurred in the U.S. last year, reframing the stakes of the ongoing fight.
Parental-rights cases are reaching the federal bench. A federal appeals court barred California from hiding student gender transitions from parents, a ruling with national implications for how schools handle disclosure to families.
Major League Baseball has become an unlikely battleground over religious expression. The DOJ opened a religious-discrimination probe into MLB over Bible verses on Pride hats, Florida's attorney general subpoenaed MLB over alleged religious discrimination, and the state launched a broader civil-rights investigation into the league over Pride Night caps.
Speech and symbolism are flashpoints too. UFC CEO Dana White defended free speech while condemning an offensive joke, a Baptist leader established Juneteenth as an official holiday, and vandals damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, forcing it to be drained for repairs. The lingering costs of past unrest also endure, as Minneapolis residents still pay an economic price for the Black Lives Matter riots.
Some fights pit state policy against other governments. New Mexico tribes decried a state drug-exposed-newborn rule as a violation of their sovereignty, underscoring how social policy can collide with tribal self-determination.
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport reversed plans for Islamic ritual foot-washing stations after the governor threatened to pull state funding over the accommodation. The fight has become a test case for how far public facilities may go in tailoring amenities to a single faith.
The Supreme Court is being urged to take up a religious liberty case brought by a Korean spa in Washington state that wants to remain female-only, a dispute that drew national attention over a judge's crude description of the anatomy at issue.
The biological parents of a baby boy born via surrogate are fighting for custody after the gestational carrier refused to have an abortion when a serious heart defect was found at 20 weeks.
Washington has taken over from Budapest as the lead sponsor of an international declaration promoting family formation and opposing abortion. Dozens of countries have signed on since it was drafted. Supporters call it a counterweight to United Nations population policy; opponents call it a rollback of health commitments.
A conservative legal group is challenging a school district's sex education curriculum, saying parents were not given a meaningful way to opt out of graphic material. The district says the program meets state standards. Similar suits have produced mixed results.
Sadie M. Flores faces charges of grooming a minor under a Kentucky statute that took effect only weeks before her arrest at Graves County Middle School, making the case an early test of the new law.
Trump urged the Senate to pass the Protect College Sports Act, warning that women’s and Olympic programs will disappear without it. But advocates for women’s sports say the White House-backed bill could override stronger state laws barring trans-identified males from female competition, and one senator has introduced an amendment to close the gap.
Vanessa Sivadge, the Christian nurse fired from Texas Children’s Hospital after alleging Medicaid fraud tied to gender procedures on minors, has settled — and the terms require the hospital to establish what is being described as the first detransitioner clinic. The outcome converts a whistleblower dispute into standing clinical capacity.
Todd Blanche has repeatedly signaled openness to federal restrictions on medication abortion, and abortion-rights groups now read those comments as a preview of Justice Department priorities rather than confirmation-hearing hedging. The nominee is on track for confirmation, which means the question moves from hypothetical to scheduled.
A federal appeals court ruled that Florida can enforce its law barring children from attending sexually explicit live performances, tossing out lower court rulings that had found the ban unconstitutional. The Protection of Children Act, passed in 2023, made it a misdemeanor to admit a minor to such a show. Gov. Ron DeSantis called the ruling a "huge victory" after a three-year fight, while opponents say the statute is vague enough to chill protected expression.
Four years after Kansas voters decisively rejected a constitutional amendment restricting abortion, Republicans are pursuing a subtler path: judicial elections, court composition and procedural changes that could narrow the state supreme court ruling the amendment was meant to overturn. The strategy is being watched as a template for other states where direct ballot measures have failed.
The administration is redirecting $67 million previously spent on sexually explicit adolescent health curricula toward risk-avoidance and relationship-focused programming. Supporters call it a long-overdue correction to material parents were never shown; opponents argue abstinence-leaning curricula have a poor evidence record on preventing pregnancy and disease.
An appeals court ruled against an Oregon public school employee fired for displaying books asserting the biological gender binary. Bomberger argues the decision leaves employees with no protected way to hold the view at all.
Internal material from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health, the field's leading standards body, argues that women in prison should accept housing with transgender inmates. WPATH's guidance underpins much of the clinical practice around youth transition.
The state agreed to stop enforcing its ban on therapy aimed at changing a minor's sexual orientation or gender identity as part of a lawsuit settlement. The law remains on the books but unenforced.
A new California statute requires every public school campus to provide at least one mixed-sex restroom option, and it takes effect as students return for the school year. Parent groups are urging families to press districts on how the requirement will be implemented.
Rep. Brandon Gill endorsed President Trump's executive order targeting the Smithsonian, calling for officials to 'clean house' over exhibits critics say portray American history in a negative light. Conservatives argue the institution has drifted toward ideological framing of the nation's past. The push signals a broader campaign to reshape federally funded cultural institutions.
Minnesota classrooms are set to receive transgender-themed dolls featuring removable genitalia as part of gender-identity instruction, according to a report. Critics say the materials introduce sexualized content to young children and usurp parental authority. Supporters frame them as inclusion tools, deepening the state's culture-war fight over school curricula.
The Justice Department issued updated religious liberty guidance strengthening protections for parental rights and religious expression in schools to reflect recent Supreme Court decisions. The revisions clarify limits on coerced observance under the Establishment Clause while affirming that faith-based expression cannot be singled out for exclusion. The move signals the administration's continued alignment with a Court that has broadened accommodations for religious families and institutions.
Cardinal Robert Sarah accused the European Union of using aid and diplomatic pressure to export abortion and LGBT ideology across Africa against the continent's Christian values. The Guinean cardinal framed the campaign as a new form of ideological colonialism that disregards African cultural and religious convictions. His remarks intensify a long-running clash between Western institutions and African church leaders over the moral terms attached to development assistance.
A Dutch committee has acknowledged that giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to trans-identified youth can cause adverse medical and physical effects, yet declined to abandon the practice. The admission is notable because the Netherlands pioneered the pediatric gender-transition model now under scrutiny worldwide. Critics say the committee's decision to double down despite conceding harms exposes a growing gap between mounting evidence and entrenched clinical practice.